Travel tips for Melghat

So, where do you stay if you do decide to visit Melghat?  We stayed at the town of Chikaldhara, which was 26kms away from the sanctuary gates.  But little did we realise what that meant.  The 26km was bad ghat roads to be traversed in a 20th century jalopy!

So, the Mad Madrasis at Melghat were travelling 104 kms a day to just get in and out of the sanctuary!  Not advisable, no definitely not!  Unless ofcourse you have a masochistic streak and like your bones rattled and reset, everyday!

If your aim is the tiger sanctuary, staying at the village of Semadoh, in the valley, makes more sense.  The problem with Semadoh, though, is that it is HOT in the day, though cool in the mornings and evenings.

It boils down to this - 

Semadoh for proximity 

Chikaldhara for better weather, scenic views of the hills and good birding.  But be warned of the long rides.

If you do choose Chikaldhara, then the MTDC resort we stayed at is best avoided.
We took the dorm, and the pictures below show you the state of disrepair and neglect of the property.
Fans and lights are missing, and the roof looks like it would leak in the rains - see all the stains on the roof?
Missing tube lights and stained sheets as well.
The doors of the toilet would not close, the taps would not work, and everything was falling apart. The enthusiasm and can do spirit of our group ensured that before we left, things were a bit better than when we arrived!
The whole property showed a lack of supervision and maintenance, scrap and rubble all over the place, broken chairs and window panes.
Then of course there was the dining room, where the cook and assistant had gone off on vacation, and we were fed by the boy who is probably a helper in the kitchen. The sunny temperament of this boy and his willingness to accommodate our need for less spice and oil were the saving grace. The kitchen would've been closed down by any sanitary inspector - roaches and grime kept our food company.
The dining room was another Mr Bean moment, with its oddly skewed pictures on the wall, broken window panes and wires running all over the place.

As with all government properties, the MTDC place has a superb location, and the view into the valley provides great birding opportunities, as also the fig trees on the campus.

The district was also in the throes of systematic power shutdowns. The notice board carried a weekly schedule of the timings of the power cut. While there was definitely no power during the times promised, it did not mean that we were assured of electricity the rest of the time!
These are issues that you expect to face while on the move in small town India.

The only thing that bugs me is the apathy of government officials, and the complete indifference of the public sector employees. My point is, why is the government in the business of running hotels in this country?
The most memorable and telling quote is probably that of the manager of the MTDC place, who moaned to us that even he could not get tea from the kitchen, leave alone us!
That summarises beautifully the state of affairs - the complete lack of accountability of the system, despite the dozens of registers, and the customer is not important attitude of all the staff.